G-8 Vows Greenhouse Gas Curbs; US Escapes Targets
    By James G. Neuger
    Bloomberg

    Thursday 07 June 2007

    Leaders of the Group of Eight main industrial nations vowed a renewed global push to fight rising temperatures, while agreeing not to force the U.S. and Russia to set targets now for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

    The European Union, Japan and Canada pledged at the G-8 summit on the German seaside to cut carbon emissions in half by 2050. The U.S. and Russia promised to take part in talks on a new international treaty to combat global warming.

    "The possibility is here for the first time of getting a global deal on climate change with substantial cuts in emissions and everyone in on the deal," U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters in Heiligendamm today.

    After giving ground to European critics last week by proposing an international conference to stem man-made pollution that is overheating the earth's atmosphere, President George W. Bush said the U.S. wouldn't be shackled to specific targets without including developing nations such as China and India.

    Bush's global warming initiative left Europe divided over how to respond, with summit host German Chancellor Angela Merkel keen to craft a face-saving compromise while new French President Nicolas Sarkozy pressed for more American concessions.

    "Substantial Coming Together"

    Blair, attending his last G-8 before leaving office, said the U.S. counteroffer on climate change helped trigger a "very substantial coming together" among world leaders over how to prevent an environmental disaster.

    Merkel, 52, claimed credit for a diplomatic coup like the one she engineered in March when the 27-nation European Union set tighter targets for cutting greenhouse gases and curbing the use of fossil fuels.

    The German leader was counting on a climate-change compromise to salvage a summit colored by rhetorical sparring between a newly assertive Russia and the West and by anti- capitalism demonstrations that degenerated into scuffles with police yesterday. Protesters made new attempts to blockade the beachfront resort today and Greenpeace boats launched a seaborne appeal for tougher climate-protection steps.

    Bush, meanwhile, sought a measure of credibility on the environment by agreeing to bind the U.S. into talks on a follow- up to the Kyoto protocol - the climate-protection accord he pulled out of after taking office in 2001.

    "Deadly Earnest"

    The U.S. is "deadly earnest in getting something done," Bush, 60, said today after his meeting with Blair, 54. He added that unless the developing world joins the discussion, "nothing is going to happen in terms of substantial reductions."

    Faced with a growing clamor at state, local and corporate level in the U.S. to act against global warming, Bush launched the U.S. back into negotiations on a tougher climate-protecting accord to replace Kyoto, which expires in 2012.

    Merkel played up the fact that there will be a "clear beginning" and "clear endpoint" to the next set of climate talks, starting in December and with a 2009 deadline for an agreement.

    "No one can escape this political commitment - it's a huge step forward," Merkel told German television reporters today.

    The G-8 groups together the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia. Leaders of developing countries including China, India and Brazil join for the final session tomorrow.

    Sarkozy

    American opposition to mandatory targets for pollution cuts pitted Bush against Sarkozy, who took office last month vowing both to curb global warming and improve ties with the U.S. that were strained by the Iraq war.

    Backing calls for a 50 percent cut in greenhouse gas pollution by 2050, Sarkozy, 52, made his G-8 debut intent on bringing the Bush administration around.

    Bush needs "to make another effort," Sarkozy said earlier today. "We must now set quantifiable targets on a global scale that the international scientific community has agreed on, and we must give ourselves the means to reach them."

    John Kirton, a University of Toronto professor who follows G-8 diplomacy, said in an interview today that global targets are inevitable because "it's pretty clear that a lot of other countries are converging toward 2050 and 50 percent."

    Bush's about-face won him rare praise from some environmental groups. Hans Verolme, director of WWF International's climate-change program, said in an interview that it "is significant that the U.S. has signed up to this. The agreement does move us a step closer to a cooler world."

    Others, like Greenpeace, remained skeptical. Daniel Mittler, Greenpeace International's climate expert, said in an interview that the Bush administration "is as far away as ever to agreeing such targets itself."

    Earlier today, Greenpeace loosed 11 rubber dinghies flying "G-8 Act Now" banners off the Baltic coast that briefly intruded into the offshore security zone around the summit site before being turned back by police.

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    To contact the reporter on this story: James G. Neuger in Heiligendamm, Germany, at jneuger@bloomberg.net.